Bridging Cities
Writers and Artists from Exeter City of Literature and Jakarta City of Literature will be taking part in an international collaboration, reflecting on one another’s work and the theme of climate change.
The culminating artwork and writing will be presented at exhibitions in Exeter and Jakarta, in October.
Exeter and Jakarta Cities of Literature have been awarded a new grant through the British Council’s Connections Through Cultures programme for a new project - Bridging Cities: Exeter X Jakarta - which will commission local artists and writers to create new work that examines the disproportionate impacts of climate change on the Global South and how to improve conversations around the intersection of climate change and diversity & inclusion.
As UNESCO-designated Cities of Literature, this grant will enable both cities to harness their literary distinction to foster international collaboration, explore literature's role in climate action, and build lasting connections between the two Cities of Literature.
The project will see emerging writers in Exeter and Jakarta commissioned to write new work and receive short mentoring sessions with experienced writers. Each piece will be translated into English and Indonesian before artists are commissioned to respond to these original pieces, as the writers will participate in a cross-city creative exchange. The resulting artwork and writing will be published in a digital publication with excerpts selected for exhibitions in Exeter and Jakarta.
Bridging Cities: Exeter x Jakarta
In August, the three writers from Exeter and three writers from Jakarta took part in virtual conversations to explore their creative process through Bridging Cities and beyond. Extracts from these conversations are included in the finished digital publication. All 6 pieces of creative writing are published in English and Bahasa Indonesian.
Commissioned Writers
As part of Bridging Cities: Exeter X Jakarta, Exeter City of Literature and Jakarta City of Literature commissioned three writers from Devon and three writers from Jakarta to contribute one short piece of original previously unpublished writing each. This can be either poetry or fiction with a maximum length of 1000 words or 80 lines of poetry.
The commissioned pieces focus on the environment and climate action. The writers were encouraged to interpret this broad theme in their own way, with a recommendation to tie it to their local area.
Dr Charles Mansfield is a literary travel writer with degrees in English Literature, French Literature, and Literary Tourism. His work specialises in place-making and urban space. He participated in a Millbay Residency exploring the urban flood defence system built in Plymouth, from which he built an archive of journaling, which has inspired his story for Bridging Cities.
Swarnim Agrawal is a writer from India who has lived in Exeter since 2022. She has an MA in Creative Writing from the University of Exeter, and has performed at various open mic nights. Her writing has been featured in the ENIGMA journal and RAZZ magazine, and she was on the Exeter judging panel for Slamovision 2023. Swarnim’s writing often focuses on the intricate emotions involved in human existence with an interconnectedness between the natural world and mental well-being. She is also interested in photography and has exhibited at Positive Light Projects.
Ysella Sims is a freelance writer, facilitator and creative communications specialist. Her creative work focuses on our connection to each other and the natural world, often exploring threads of commonality. She produces and hosts events, facilitates workshops and performs her work on the rich South West literary scene.
Dwianti Aviantari, pen name Daveenaar, is a new writer who previously worked in the financial sector. After writing for Kompasiana, in her first year of writing, her works were published by Elex Media and Gramedia Pustaka Utama. She has self-published a political novel and is now working on a project about illegal loggers.
Shin Alex is an emerging writer living in Jakarta, specialising in young adult and children's fantasy stories. She is involved in the Indonesian storytelling community, and her writing was part of a project with the University of Plymouth and the World Illustration Awards through the
Cities of Literature network.
Shoba Dewey Chugani is a writer and storytelling mentor based in Jakarta. Her first children’s book Janggan Dragon Kite was shortlisted for the Scholastic Picture Book Awards in 2015, and her poem interpreting Weston Wei’s Sleeping with My Allergy artwork was included in the City of Literature project with the University of Plymouth and the World Illustration Awards.
Commissioned Artists
As part of Bridging Cities: Exeter X Jakarta, Exeter City of Literature and Jakarta City of Literature commissioned three artists from Devon and three writers from Jakarta to respond to a piece of climate-action focused writing. Artists from Exeter responded to writing from Jakarta, whilst artists from Jakarta responded to writing from Exeter.
Exeter Artists
Iris Morgan (she/they) is a Queer and Cymreig multidisciplinary illustrator, ceramicist, and ritual facilitator based in Devon, England. Iris is interested in creating work that looks at Queerness, Nature, History, and the Occult through an anthropological lens, using bold shapes, textures, forms, and materials.
Soni Speight is an imaginative illustrator, author, and designer based in Exeter, who loves exploring characters and narratives. Inspired by the natural beauty of her surroundings, Soni brings stories to life through vibrant illustrations and thoughtful designs, blending creativity and passion in every project.
Ridi Hossain (she/her) is a British Bengali artist and the owner of CreativeWeirdo, an art business in Exeter specialising in fine art illustrations, watercolours, and anime-style drawings. Her work has since been featured in OK! Magazine.
Jakarta Artists
Antonio Reinhard Wisesa is an illustrator from Indonesia, trying his best to capture the world in his work.
Hezky Kurniawan is an Indonesian illustrator specialising in children’s book illustrations, murals, and portraits. He has created illustrations for Dewi Lestari, Ika Natassa, and Risa Saraswati, and worked with international brands.
Lala Bohang is a visual artist and writer whose work explores identity, memory, and possibility. Lala has participated in several group exhibitions in Indonesia and abroad and received the International Ranald MacDonald Award 2020 for the book The Journey of Belonging written with Lara Nuberg.
Bridging Cities: Exeter x Jakarta
Exhibitions
Exeter
Following a private launch with the Exeter writers & artists, a public exhibition in Exeter Library’s foyer was on display in October 2024.
Jakarta
The Jakarta UNESCO City of Literature team displayed the commissioned writing and artwork at The Frankfurt Book Fair - the world’s largest trade fair for books - in October 2024.
Jakarta
In November 2024, The Jakarta UNESCO City of Literature team presented the project at Jakarta Content Week, an international Literary and Creative content festival pioneered and organised by 17000 Islands of Imagination Foundation in collaboration with the Frankfurter Buchmesse (FBM) with a focus on Asia Pacific.
Jakarta writers Shoba and Alex attended the exhibition and received a printed edition of the project artwork and writing. The two writers had previously worked on another global writing project created by Exeter City of Literature called Illustrating The Wor(l)d, and were able to recieve physical copies of this during their visit too!
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The British Council
The British Council is the UK’s international organisation for cultural relations and educational opportunities. They support peace and prosperity by building connections, understanding and trust between people in the UK and countries worldwide. They do this through our work in arts and culture, education and the English language. They work with people in over 200 countries and territories and are on the ground in more than 100 countries. In 2022-23 they reached 600 million people.
#ConnectionsThroughCulture
The Connections Through Culture grants programme is designed to nurture fresh cultural partnerships between East Asia and the UK. These grants are instrumental in supporting new ideas and collaborations from artists and cultural organisations at any stage of development. The grants supported in this round of Connections Through Culture programme have focused on two distinct areas: diversity and inclusion, and addressing climate change. The collaborative efforts across borders and artistic disciplines will lead to new thoughts and ideas created to address global challenges. The grants support new connections, exchanges and collaborations and help build long-term relationships and collaborations between artists, cultural professionals, creative practitioners and art and cultural organisations, hubs, networks and collectives.
Jakarta City of Literature
On November 8, 2021, Jakarta was chosen as the Creative City of Literature, joining the UNESCO Creative Cities Network (UCCN) international network. Jakarta is the home of the creative industry and is recognized as a major creative center for the publishing industry in Indonesia. It serves as the hub of Indonesia’s literary scene and boasts the most productive publishing industry in Southeast Asia.
The 17000 Pulau Imaji Foundation
17000 Islands of Imagination Foundation is a non-profit organization working to improve the quality of literature and creative content in Indonesia, initiating and organizing various educative and inspiring programs that encourage the realization of a sustainable literary ecosystem, encouraging high-quality literary products, making reading materials accessible for people, as well as elevating the role of Indonesian literature in global contemporary issue, and collaborating with various actors in the book industry, the government, corporation, and communities. From 2020 until now, the foundation and Frankfurter Buchmesse are organizing the Jakarta Content Week (Jaktent) which will bring together different creative sectors, such as publishing, literature, film, IP, AI, music, culinary, and many more.